Karl Kübel Foundation for Child and Family (KKF)

Karl Kübel Foundation for Child and Family (KKF) is a development organisation established in India in 1994, with over 31 years of grassroots experience. KKF's work is centred on strengthening communities, organisations, leaders, and systems through capacity building, field innovation, partnerships, and sustainable development action. Its campus and field programmes are rooted in the Anaikatti range of the Nilgiris, an ecologically sensitive landscape of grasslands, shola forests, and indigenous communities, though its work extends across India. KKF combines direct field implementation with training, research, and policy convening, working with government bodies, grassroots and international NGOs, community based organisations, corporates, and educational institutions.

Head Quaters: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India (KKID Campus, Anaikatti)

Major Areas of Work

• Sustainable Development Programmes: Integrated interventions in livelihoods, education, women's empowerment, climate resilience, and natural resource management, grounded in gender equity and local capacity building.
• Research and Consultancy: Developing knowledge products through research, consultancy, and collaborative knowledge building with a range of sector stakeholders.
• Training and Capacity Building: Participatory, primarily residential training programmes for individuals, families, and organisations at regional, national, and international levels.
• Convening and Amplifying: Hosting national and international events and workshops, brokering partnerships, and publishing policy notes on urgent development issues.

Major Initiatives & Programmes

• Karl Kübel Institute for Development (KKID): The Foundation's residential training campus in Anaikatti, offering an immersive learning experience through trainings, workshops, and webinars, including recent programmes on child rights and child protection, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL), AI in the social sector, and fundraising and proposal writing.
• Sustainable Development Projects: Field based livelihood, education, and natural resource management projects rooted in the Western Ghats region.
• International Conference on Fair Migration: A campus based conference convening employers, institutions, and civil society organisations on migration issues.
• Safeguarding and Child Protection Capacity Building: Training support to partner organisations, including Sakhi Kendra, JRS-SAS, and KMVS, on child protection, institutional safeguarding, and internal accountability systems.

Impact

Over 31 years in India, KKF has recorded 327,419 footfalls and served 16,250 entities through its programmes. It has coordinated 100 projects, conducted 70 evaluations, published 35 publications, reviewed 400 policies, and facilitated 200 youth exchanges and 35 thematic exchanges across its work.

Partners

• Pravah (New Delhi)
• Sakhi Kendra (Kanpur)
• JRS-SAS (New Delhi)
• KMVS (Gujarat)
• SPAN (West Bengal)
• Government bodies, grassroots and international NGOs, corporates, and educational institutions engaged through its research and training programmes

Team

• Executive Director: Kailash Hariharan Iyer
• Head – Learning and Capability Development: Dr. K. S. Malathi
• Head – Admin & PR: N. Selvaraj
• Manager - Finance: Balaji Ramachandran

KKF suits people interested in a blend of field implementation and institutional capacity building, rather than direct service delivery alone, since much of its work involves training other organisations, conducting research, and convening sector-wide dialogue in addition to its own community programmes. It appeals to people motivated by systemic, ecosystem level change (strengthening other organisations' child protection systems, HR processes, and safeguarding practices), and to those drawn to an established, three-decade-old organisation with a distinctive base in an ecologically significant region of the Western Ghats.